Susan Page to accept William Allen White Foundation National Citation
LAWRENCE – Susan Page, Washington Bureau chief of USA TODAY and best-selling author, will receive the 2026 William Allen White National Citation. The award, which recognizes individuals for outstanding journalistic service, comes from a vote of the trustees of the William Allen White Foundation, which is named in honor of White.
Page will accept the award in person on Thursday, April 9, in the Kansas Union to celebrate William Allen White Day. She will give an address at 3 p.m. in the Kansas Union Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public.
“It’s truly an honor to present the William Allen White National Citation to Susan,” said Scott Reinardy, interim dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications. “Her unwavering dedication to journalism reflects the ideals emblematic of William Allen White. At a time when covering national politics is increasingly complex and contentious, Susan continues to deliver fair, credible, fact-based journalism. Her work exemplifies the highest standards of our profession.”
Page has covered 12 presidential campaigns and eight White House administrations and has interviewed the past 10 presidents (three of them after they left the office). In 2020, she moderated the vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, the only print reporter ever to be a solo moderator for the Commission on Presidential Debates.
“As a fourth-generation Kansan who started in journalism working on the mimeographed newspaper at Robinson Junior High School in Wichita, William Allen White has been a lodestar,” Page said. “Receiving the medal struck in his name is the honor of a lifetime. Much of journalism has been revolutionized since he was editing the Emporia Gazette, from the pace of newsgathering to the explosion in ways it’s delivered.”
“But the job of a journalist – to shine a light on good and evil, to inform the democracy, to hold the powerful to account – is precisely the same. For that sacred task, William Allen White remains an inspiration and an aspiration.”
Page is a native of Wichita, a graduate of Northwestern and Columbia universities, and the mother of two sons. She is a former president of the White House Correspondents Association and the Gridiron Club, and she has won every journalism award given specifically for coverage of the presidency.
Her biographies of formidable women include The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters, Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power, and The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty. Her fourth book, The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand that Shaped History, is being published by Harper in April 2026.
Other notable recipients of the William Allen White Foundation National Citation include Lester Holt, the Marion County Record, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Martin Baron, Cokie Roberts, Leonard Pitts Jr., Candy Crowley, Seymour Hersh, Walter Cronkite, Charles Kuralt, Bob Woodward, Molly Ivins, Gordon Parks and Bob Dotson. A complete list of recipients is on the School of Journalism & Mass Communications website.
The William Allen White Foundation was founded in 1945, one year after the Kansas Board of Regents established the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications at KU. The William Allen White Foundation has been recognizing outstanding journalists since 1950.